Tag Archives: Constitution

If you were paying attention, you may have noticed a shift in the orientation of the bills coming out of the Republican-controlled state legislatures in the past few months. As with the recently vetoed bill in Arizona, they increasingly use the term “religious freedom” to justify intolerance and bigotry. Much of this pandering on social issues is to give their voters a reason to support them at the polls, and continue to vote against their own interests. They were doing very well using the old “family values” ploy to do this for so many years, so one might wonder what’s behind this new framing.

The right has long used religious freedom to fight various aspects of Obama’s healthcare plan, make changes to the educational system, and justify the oppression of women. Now it is the go-to excuse for most issues. All of these measures are unconstitutional, regardless of the justification for them—every single one. Even the present Supreme Court has refused to allow any of these measures to remain law. In light of that, why do they keep bringing them up and passing them, and why do the voters keep supporting them? What do they have to gain? Continue reading →

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Those immortal words from our Declaration of Independence, were written by Thomas Jefferson, explaining from whence government draws its power, and what should happen when government usurps that power. It has, in spades! The electorate has lost all power under our system, and it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to do something about it.

I have been preaching on various boards and forums for months now that the only viable way to preserve the middle class in the United States, and remove the yoke of corporate oppression that has gobbled-up the entire government is for the public to participate in mass civil disobedience, general strikes, removing money from national banking institutions, and some other things. Mostly, I have been taken for some kind of crank or eccentric, most people seeming to want to do the easy thing and stay within the system, hoping for some “change you can believe in.” Well, our experience is proving that this attitude of “lesser of two evils” is nothing but magical thinking.

I will be the first to admit that beyond my few suggestions, I had nothing further to offer beyond my willingness to do what I could to support such efforts. Now, however, an organization has been brought to my attention that has a complete plan, even down to suggested legislation, and recommended means of implementing the plan. The website is: http://www.resetbutton2011.org/ and here is a brief synopsis of the plan from the website:

Phase I of The Reset Button is true election reform, which puts the sovereignty over and control of elections into the hands of the citizen electorate – for the first time in the history of our nation. Phase I of The Reset Button calls for one US Constitutional amendment – Amendment XXVIII (Election Reform Amendment) – to be ratified immediately, and one law – the Election Reform Act of 2011 – to be passed immediately, in order for the citizens of the United States to gain sovereignty and democratic rule in the United States of America. Once Phase I is accomplished, Phase II of The Reset Button outlines major, simultaneous changes in governance, to steer the United States to a course of integrity and away from collusion, to real peace and away from imperialistic and militaristic and predatory behavior, to sovereignty over and control of healthful food, air, water, and healthcare, to a world-changing embracing of non-polluting “free energy” technologies and the accompanying paradigm shift from scarcity to abundance, to a blended ideology of social democracy for our needs and restrained capitalism for our desires beyond our needs, to social, economic, and environmental harmony, benevolence, and justice for all.

Please read the entire The Reset Button document – it will probably only take a couple of hours. You need to know the details, not just skim over it. You need to know the document well enough to literally “be the leader of the movement” at any point, because we are all the leaders of the movement. The Reset Button movement is headless – we are, each and every one of us, the leader, the head of the movement. Holding the concept, “rule by rules, not by rulers”, we don’t have, don’t need, and don’t want a singular powerful or charismatic leader, or a celebrity spokesperson. Instead, with The Reset Button, we have a strong document that defines our movement, a strong blueprint to build from, a strong plan and call to action for gaining sovereignty and self-governance – for the first time in our lives.

Maybe it is a little bit scary to move forward and support The Reset Button movement with your heart and soul, but think how frightening the alternative is. We have been steadily losing any control whatsoever over our future, losing our rights, losing our freedoms, losing our sovereignty. The giant national and multinational corporations and the giant national and international banks now have everything they need to utterly dominate our lives, legally, through buying elections (with the decision in the Supreme Court case that sounds as if George Orwell wrote the title, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.) The corporations and banks are now poised to complete their takeover of the US government and its citizens. At this defining moment in history, we either immediately stiffen our backbones, stop them before the 2012 elections, change the rules, and hit the reset button – or quite likely, we will never again have a chance for sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance.

Our strength is in numbers. We need everyone to pull together and, as the US Constitution says, “…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”, and make the changes outlined in The Reset Button happen. Millions of voices in unison demanding – and finally achieving – a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. We will succeed.

Please give it a read, and forward it to your friends, and paste the link in the boards and forums you visit. The oligarchy is NOT going to relinquish control without a fight, but they cannot continue to survive without us, if we remain united.

OK, I get it! I understand what Glen Beck is after, and if I’m right, he poses the greatest danger to the Constitution that it has faced in the history of the Republic. He has evidently decided he wants to be the Messiah who ushers-in the next great religious “awakening.” Although he stumbled upon this great mission because of some legal problems inherent in making his weekend rally political in nature, that does not diminish the force of his message, not only to the rabid christians who attended his little show, but also the millions who did not.

The message, of course, was that the only path leading to the salvation of this country, and the American way of life itself lies in returning to God! It was quite clear that secular government must give way to what the founders (all of them, according to David Barton) originally intended, which was nothing less than a government based upon the ten commandments and the moral principals revealed in holy scripture.

At the rally, Beck pretty much denounced the rhetoric he pounds over the airways all week long, on Saturday he talked about love, simpler times, returning to our founding principals, etc.. Gone was the hate and rabble-rousing he usually deals in, of course this behavior drives his critics nuts, but his supporters don’t even seem to notice. They see Beck (and Palin, of course) as being “just like them,” and to their most ardent supporters, they can do no wrong.

So, what’s the hitch? What’s the danger? Why is Beck supposedly more dangerous now then he was before? His hypocritical maneuver has inadvertently tapped into a huge reservoir of political strength – perhaps the greatest single potential political power in the country! His little show has, quite possibly, re-united the successful coalition of the socially and politically conservative, which goes way beyond what the Tea Party on its own had accomplished. Neither faction is totally happy with the current Republican party positions, but who the hell knows what they even are any more?

The Republican platform for the next two elections will be whatever their supporters want it to be. The corporations and special interests paying the bills could care less about the social or political issues in the elections, they only care about legislative positions, and their own bottom lines. As far as they’re concerned, a religious society is a compliant society, that is likely to go along with whatever adventure is presented to them, as long as it is presented as an outgrowth of American exceptionalism!

Make no mistake, if the Evangelicals get solidly behind the Republicans in the next election, and they succeed in obtaining majorities in one or both houses of Congress, in addition to the endless investigations they have promised, you will see the resurrection of some of the most heinous religiously-inspired legislation that has ever seen the light of day. The Constitution Restoration Act of 2005, for instance, would exempt from judicial review any decision made by any level state or local government if such decision was made because of their belief in a supreme being!

That little gem had many co-sponsors in Bush’s second term, but was shelved after the 2006 election. Expect to see it, and many others introduced in the next two years, and signed into law after Obama’s one term is over.

It will be interesting to see if Beck follows-through on what he started Saturday. Goodness knows that he and Palin used all the right code-words, those little verbal clues that so energize the Evangelicals, who are already convinced that our problems would all be cured if we would but turn back to (their) God, and accept (their interpretation of) his holy word.

"The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. ...The plain lesson is that study and learning – not just of science, but of anything – are avoidable and even undesirable.”